Halfway through my senior year at California Baptist University, I was trying to figure out what to do with my life, like many seniors around me. After a month or two of putting it off, I started considering going overseas for ministry. I had no idea what this would look like or how I would go. I just knew that I wanted to go. After continuing to be unsure of how it would all work out, I came across GoCorps.
GoCorps takes recent college graduates and connects them with a sending organization for two years. Their hope is to give graduates an opportunity to use their degree on the field and make “mid-term missions” a norm. They work with some of the most effective agencies to achieve this goal.
I quickly filled out the application and began talking with them. Before I knew it, I had a job right after college to raise support and prepare for my two-year journey.
It wasn’t easy, though. There were many doubts and fears that had entered into my mind. Through the encouragement of others and confirmation from the Father, I continued to press forward. It wasn’t until I started raising support that those doubts started to fade.
Once I was on the field, my eyes were fully opened to see the confirmation the Lord had been giving me since the start.
I ended up in Central Asia teaching English to college students. My degree is in history, so to add a spin to my English lessons, I incorporated historical and debate topics into my courses. It was a challenge, but overall I enjoyed incorporating it into my lessons.
Outside the classroom, I met with my students and invested in their lives. I learned the local language as best I could in two years. Through storytelling from the Bible, I was able to see the Father work to make his word known. Even now I’m able to keep up with a few of my students via Skype. It is crazy how much technology has changed the possibility for us to impact the nations.
Through this experience, I’ve learned what it will take to live and thrive in a foreign country. I plan on eventually returning to the field once I’ve either pursued more education or have found the right organization to return with. Given the experiences and knowledge gained from the last two years, I have a better understanding of what the pursuit of this goal might look like.
Whether you are sure of your calling to go overseas, thinking you should be in the U.S. to pursue a career or are unsure about what is to come, GoCorps is worth considering. These next two years could be a time of confirmation as to where you should be in the future, a next step towards the goal of a life-long overseas commitment and a period of gaining life experience and international skills.
It will be an experience that will open up your worldview and give you more of an understanding of God’s heart for the nations as you enter into the blessing of bringing the gospel to the ends of the earth.
GoCorps specializes in connecting recent university graduates with ways they can use their degree among the poor and least-reached globally. All of their placements are for two years. Application deadline is Feb. 21. Learn more at www.GoCorps.org.
